Mamata Banerjee slams PM Modi, says Centre indulging in political gains

Kolkata, Dec 26: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday for misleading farmers with "half-truth and distorted facts" instead of proactively addressing their issues. Banerjee also blamed the Centre of non-cooperation and "indulging in propaganda for petty political gains".

"Our farmer brothers & sisters have been on streets protesting against new farm laws. Instead of addressing them, PM today chose to mislead the people with half-truth & distorted facts. BJP-led Centre is not cooperating & only indulging in propaganda for petty political gains," she tweeted.

The West Bengal Chief Minister also said that the three contentious farm laws would dilute the MSP and state procurement systems, leaving farmers at the mercy of private buyers. She slammed the PM for 'showing his apparent concern' via a televised event rather than proactively working to resolve their issues.

Mamata said that she had written two letters on the issue of PM Kisan Yojana and spoken to the minister concerned but it was them who were not cooperating.

She also reminded the Centre of its Rs 85,000 crore outstanding dues to the state, which included Rs 8,000 crore of unpaid GST dues, saying that they must release a part of these funds if they really cared about West Bengal.

The chief minister said that her government was prepared to do anything for the benefit of the people, even if it meant supporting the politically driven schemes of the Centre which were formulated out of political agenda and were not in the interest of helping people.